ABOUT 19,000 hampers will be sent to victims of the collapsed Farepak Christmas savings scheme.

This is some 4,000 fewer than were ordered, the Government has said.

The first of the "goodwill gesture" food packs will be delivered within the next week or so, according to Consumer Minister Ian McCartney.

Late donations to the Farepak Response Fund were used to buy the hampers from the administrators for an undisclosed sum.

Each package contains items such as tinned and pre-packed food, confectionery and alcohol.

But any pre-ordered frozen and fresh food such as meat and turkey cannot be included.

Some 7,900 Farepak agents will get the first hampers one week from today. It will be up to them to decide which customers get them.

Nearly 23,000 hampers were ordered by Farepak customers before the company collapsed. Farepak itself had not placed orders for the contents of about 4,000 hampers with its own suppliers by the time it became insolvent.

Recipients will not get what they originally paid for because no centralised records of orders were kept.

Many Huddersfield customers were hit by the collapse of the firm.

The hampers are currently stored in a warehouse in Wakefield, from where they will be delivered free of charge by the Home Delivery Network Ltd.

Pre-paid frozen food which cannot be delivered will be sold off by the administrators.